The Rower: Best Cardio Machine

"Marathon runners talk about hitting 'the wall' at the twenty-third mile of the race. What rowers confront isn't a wall; it's a hole - an abyss of pain, which opens up in the second minute of the race. Large needles are being driven into your thigh muscles, while your forearms seem to be splitting. Then the pain becomes confused and disorganized, not like the windedness of the runner or the leg burn of the biker but an all-over, savage unpleasantness. As you pass the five-hundred-meter mark, with three-quarters of the race still to row, you realize with dread that you are not going to make it to the finish, but at the same time the idea of letting your teammates down by not rowing your hardest is unthinkable...Therefore, you are going to die. Welcome to this life."

-- Ashleigh Teitel

This post compares the C2 Rower to Running, Biking & the Elliptical

Impact

The C2 is impact free and can be done at very high intensity without concern for articulating cartilage or meniscus damage. When running at high intensity you do not have this same peace of mine. The bike and elliptical are impact free so we have a tie here for this category.

Muscle Mass

The C2 rower requires the recruitment of far more musculature then running, biking, and the elliptical combined. More specifically, while rowing you use your legs, glutes, abdominals, back, shoulders, and arms. You can also increase the resistance on a C2 to help you recruit high threshold muscle fibers in the lower and upper body, something that none of the other cardio modes can argue.

Range of Motion (ROM)

For range of motion, the C2 has got them all beat by a large margin range, with one exception. While rowing, your ankles, knees, hips and shoulders will flex and extend to a larger degree then they would otherwise during biking and elliptical training. During a full sprint your hips might exceed the C2 ROM but that is the only joint which might. Also, the C2 does not define your movement pattern while that is true for the bike and elliptical.

I discussed interval training with my first post and the C2 Rower is the very best way to get those intervals in. It is impact free, incorporates a ton of musculature, and requires those muscles to work through their full range of motion. Biking, Running, and the Elliptical cannot make that claim.

For those three reasons, rowing is exceptionally good at fatiguing the body quickly. Look at the pictures below to get the form down and keep that back flat the entire time even if you lean forward or backward from the hip.

Next time you workout, try rowing 2000 meter as fast as you can.

If you beat my 2000m best, I’ll give you $20 CASH! It is 6:47. I promise. E-mail me a pic of the monitor as proof. Images taken from Crossfit.com